Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver’s campaign to introduce a sugar tax on fizzy drinks and snacks has been gaining momentum. Oliver has a history of trying to persuade the British public to eat more healthily…

If you rely on benefits, accessing a trustworthy financial system is hard. This is the case for both borrowing and for saving. While some question whether people on benefits are in a position to save at…

It took decades for behavioural economics to break into the mainstream. Now, after just a few years of “bias”, “anchoring” and “nudge”, some critics are already questioning whether it has anything left…

A wall of indebted students at the University of Portsmouth.
upsuportsmouthJuli 17, 2014

“Life imitates art far more than art imitates life,” according to Oscar Wilde. No more so than in the contemporary issue of debt. It seems that while we may have been born free, many of us will die financially…

‘Nudge’ theory - a form of behavioural economics - encourages rather than coerces.
Image sourced from www.shutterstock.comJuni 5, 2014

Earlier this week an impressive cast of academics, policy experts and business leaders gathered in Sydney at the inaugural Behavioural Exchange meeting to talk about “nudges”. Made famous by Richard Thaler…

All in the wording: behavioural science, such as the ‘nudge’ concept isn’t new, or quasi-science.
Image sourced from www.shutterstock.comJuni 4, 2014

In recent years, books like Predictably Irrational, Nudge and Thinking Fast and Slow have catapulted the findings of behavioural science (think cognitive psychology and behavioural economics) into new-found…

The ancient Greeks had a term for self-destructive behaviour. It was called akrasia – the tendency to indulge in behaviour which goes against our better judgement or received wisdom – and there is plenty…